Violence deters Zimbabwe activists

Arrests following a meeting to discuss north Africa uprisings highlight risks of staging anti-Mugabe protests.

01 Mar 2011 05:59 GMT

Munyaradzi Gwisai is a former opposition member of Zimbabwe’s parliament and the man who convened a meeting last Saturday in Harare to discuss the uprisings in North Africa.

Gwisai and 45 others were arrested and allegedly tortured by Zimbabwean police. They now face a charge of treason that carries the death penalty.

In neighbouring South Africa, where Zimbabweans have come to find work and safety in their many hundreds of thousands, there is fairly open talk about what events up in north Africa could mean for Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe's three-decade rule has been marked by repression.

But with elections marred by violence in the past and so many among the youth and educated middle classes having fled, it is unclear where change will come from. And now activists meeting to discuss the recent unrest have been rounded up.